NYC Cravings Truck

The Cravings truck!!! parked on Liberty between Trinity and Broadway.  I’ve been reading about this truck on Midtown Lunch since they first hit the street food scene about 2 months ago now.  Unfortunately, they’ve never parked far downtown enough for me to comfortably be able to go and come back within my hour… until yesterday, that is!  (I realize when you read this, you’ll be like, ummm, no, but bear in mind I write these posts and schedule them for future posting…)  They parked right across from Sam’s Falafel (whose line was ridiculous!), which is totally walkable for me – still a lil far though, try coming down to Coenties Slip between Pearl and Broad, why don’t you?  No one will bother you there… 🙂

If you notice above, as I arrived around 1:20pm, there was no line.  I was sad for them but happy for me & my tummy! 

The menu – apparently they do not serve dumplings in Midtown anymore.  Someone suggested it might be because of Rickshaw Dumplings, though they park down here occasionally as well, I don’t know.  Notice the price changes – the chicken was only $6 until July 1st. 

 

My coworker opted to get the fried chicken leg, which he seemed to like. 

Me? 

I got pork, of course.  I love pork. 

I have a confession to make… I don’t know, what kind of horrible Asian(-American) am I… my first banh mi was from the banh mi cart, despite having heard about them for years, my friends have been eating them for years, blah blah blah.  I knew what they were, but I just never went out of my way to get one, and it’s not like it’s the type of food you tell your friends “let’s go get banh mi” and then you sit and eat because there’s no tables in the place my friend likes best.  Whatever. 

And the confession here is that despite having gone to many, many Taiwanese restaurants over the years and watching my friends get ‘pork chop over rice’ as their meal, I have never eaten pork-chop-over-rice.  I used to eat all of my (ex-)boyfriend’s pickled mustard greens, but I was always the girl ordering beef-and-tomato-over-rice (Taiwanese style, don’t order this at a Cantonese place, you’ll get something totally different), Laifood/66, holla!  Ahem, anyway, so I’ve never had this dish, it slipped my mind completely as I’ve grown out of going clubbing then hitting up Chinese food joints at 2am and all that (if you know what Laifood/66 is, you’ll understand the correlation… otherwise, just understand I no longer do those things).  In fact, the last time I went there, I definitely ordered beef-and-tomato-over-rice, introduced my now-boyfriend to the joys of that dish, and taught him how to use chopsticks effectively all in one swoop.  (He now uses chopsticks better than I do.) 

So I have nothing to which I can compare it.

Mmm, porky goodness.  All I can tell you is that it’s quite delicious.  The pork chop was fried well, with a crispy sheen to it, and there were two huge pieces shoved into my container.  The pork sauce mixed in with the rice and pickly greens was delicious, and overall, everything was totally awesome.  I can’t believe I haven’t been eating this for years (oh, wait, it makes sense: I quit eating pork for a period of like 4 years at one point, never mind, I understand now – some b*face poisoned me and I couldn’t get over it).   

The only thing I don’t like is the price.  I know one can say “But you’re not in Chinatown” or whatever, and sure, I’m not, but I’m not saying “It’s cheaper in Chinatown.”  I’m simply saying I don’t know that the above platter is worth $7.  $6 sounds reasonable. 

Either way, if they return to this area, I’ll definitely be trying the chicken over rice… and maybe a tea egg. 

Yvo says: A little on the pricey side, but I suppose if they had prices ending in 50c they’d have to fumble around with making change.  Like a tea egg for 50c would be a much more reasonable price, as would the box drink I bought (which, admittedly, is often sold for $1 in the bakeries).  An extra scoop of sauce for 50c is reasonable, but $1 is pushing it.  The pork chop over rice is pretty damn tasty though! 
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